Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Moral of the Story is...

Brooke brings up a great point- canning does have some drawbacks. It is not all fun and games.

I still am fighting the battle with fruit flies, (but I think I may finally have the upper-hand) It gets hot, and its a TON of work. And sometimes you get random surprises, like the jar of pickles Jeremy and I discover at his mom's house- they were a little dated. They were from way back in '85- the year I began kindergarten people! Whoa. Therefore, be diligent in rotating.

But even if you are good at rotating accidents can still happen. Just yesterday I was rotating the 06 juice to the front and the 07 to the back a lid "flipped" off. "Weird." I thought. As I was carefully bringing jar to the front I was hoping it hadn't been unsealed too long. Not much luck. It apparently had been fermenting a while since it had a generous amount of white mold growing on the top of what looked like purple refrigerated gravy that has turned into a solid mass. The smell was fantastic!!

So, beware- every silver lining is ALWAYS around a dark cloud.

10 comments:

Jackie B. said...

Nasty. Purple gravy. I want to learn to can, so i have the skills. Not that i'd do it ALL the time. But sometimes it would be nice.

JustRandi said...

Now THESE are the stories of my canning career. And why I don't do so much of it anymore.
But I'm so proud of YOU!!

tharker said...

You're awesome just for doing it. Although, the purple gravy does sound pretty nasty.

Marilyn said...

The scares of canning (spoilage, bacteria) are one of the reasons I haven't gotten way into it. But you impress me.

Kris said...

I opened up some canned beans a few months ago, and the lid wasn't sealed. The beans looked ok. They weren't moldy yet, but they smelled bad. I threw them out! YUCK. I just got a bottle canned grape juice from my friend. I can't wait to try it. Heather, you are so awesome! All the things you've been canning. Good for you!

Sarah said...

It kind of makes things surprising at least. It's like winning the lottery when you get a good jar!

goddessdivine said...

Yuck! Another reason not to can (for me anyways). That and I lack the skills.

I have a good life said...

I don't think I have ever canned...but I think I would love to. Right now fruit is so darn expensive and we don't have enough of our own that food storage is made up of pre-canned stuff. At lest I don't usually have to worry about purple gravy!

I am so impressed with the canning though! Good For You! :)

Melissa said...

Yum! I do enjoy canning. I just haven't done any for awhile...

Patriot said...

I just came across your blog. Just wanted to let you know that I host a free giveaway every week on my blog for high quality, American made products. I don't make any money off of this, I just want to see more attention given to these products and more jobs stay in America.

I'm trying to spread the word! Come check it out!

Thank you!